Schmitz Cargobull invests over 50 million euros in its Vreden site

Vreden site, increasing refrigerated trailer production with a new hall, digital tools, and logistics improvements, enhancing efficiency and sustainability.

Vreden, Germany- Schmitz Cargobull AG., a trailer manufacturer, is investing over 50 million euros to expand production at its Vreden site, focusing on refrigerated and box body semi-trailers. The plan includes a new 4,500 m² production hall, restructuring assembly, and incorporating advanced technology. This will boost production to 40 refrigerated vehicles per shift and cut cycle time per trailer from 15 to 10 minutes, enhancing efficiency and competitiveness.

A central component of this project is the intensive use of digital tools to plan the new buildings and machinery. By doing so, the design of work processes can be optimised and the planned measures can be implemented in an efficient and future-proof way. For future production workflows, digital simulations will be used to test and validate the new processes at an early stage.

The Vreden site is also one of two flagship factories within the “Datenfabrik.NRW” promotional project, a regional project aimed at crafting data-based factories. As such, Schmitz Cargobull is taking on a pioneering role in the development of digital factories in the local area and creating a new benchmark for digital transformation within the industry.

In addition to the new production hall, a new logistics concept will also be introduced to refine internal workflows. What’s more, measures will be taken to gradually upgrade components production to make the Vreden site more future-proof. All of the main measures will be implemented at the main refrigerated vehicle production plant in Südlohner Diek.

In addition to expanding production capacity, the existing supply centre at the Große Mast site will be increased. The existing parking capacity is due to be doubled by expanding into a neighbouring brownfield site, which will accelerate and optimise the vehicle delivery process. By ceasing to rent external parking areas in the local area, this measure will also reduce strain on local traffic and cut costs. The increased use of electrically powered tractor units will further increase the efficiency and sustainability of logistics processes.

With the measures taken, Schmitz Cargobull is making an important contribution to the achievement of in-house environmental objectives and actively helping to improve ecological and economical sustainability.